44： Plex Skeptics _transcript_corrected.txt

[0.00 → 7.46] Have you noticed lately that the self-hosted and Home lab Subreddits freaking love their dashboards?
[8.10 → 10.78] Yes, it's dashboards all day. Are you kidding me?
[11.36 → 16.54] Every third post is, oh, I'm just humblebragging about all the self-hosted services I've got.
[16.54 → 20.84] And I always feel like my dashboard is not as pretty as it could be.
[21.34 → 23.22] I mean, they're not even as nice as your dashboards.
[23.30 → 27.00] And these dashboards are like, they look like you should be controlling a starship with some of them.
[27.00 → 31.16] The word dashboard has become a sound to me. You've just said it too much.
[31.56 → 33.66] Dashboard, dashboard. Yeah.
[33.98 → 39.60] I mean, there are lots of options, right? There is Homer, there is Kendal, there is, I mean, there are dozens of them.
[39.84 → 46.34] I get why people like them, but they're just another thing to become out of date.
[46.42 → 52.54] And I find that even if I set one up, the entropy to keeping it up to date is too high.
[52.54 → 57.88] And six months later, I haven't opened it for a while. And, oh, I don't even run that service anymore.
[57.98 → 58.90] Why is that still on there?
[59.40 → 63.06] And it gets worse the more devices you have, or you remove or add.
[63.22 → 67.58] And in some cases, I have devices that go offline or online depending on my location.
[68.16 → 71.02] And then the dashboard is like messed up temporarily while I'm travelling.
[71.02 → 74.32] And then I just like debate the entire time if I should remove it.
[74.62 → 80.06] And God forbid, I take something out, and then I have to go everywhere and make sure I've got it removed from my Lovelace dashboard and my Heads Up dashboard.
[80.40 → 83.04] It's just like it's dashboard overload for me.
[83.46 → 86.34] But I get the people like they like sharing them.
[86.74 → 92.74] And I kind of like I like viewing them sort of like I enjoy viewing desktop screenshots.
[93.66 → 95.14] Oh, that's an interesting way to do it.
[95.14 → 98.56] And sometimes I'm like, never going to do that.
[99.18 → 100.66] I'm just never going to go that far.
[101.32 → 102.02] It's discovery.
[102.46 → 104.80] You know, oh, look, this person's got 47 apps.
[104.94 → 106.24] What what does this one do?
[106.66 → 107.26] Yeah, that's true.
[107.38 → 107.78] That's true.
[108.38 → 110.40] Well, go see what you can do at the all new a cloud guru.
[110.52 → 113.70] They are the leader in learning for the cloud, Linux and other modern tech skills.
[114.06 → 116.28] Hundreds of courses and thousands of hands on labs.
[116.52 → 119.48] Get certified, get hired, get learning at a cloud guru dot com.
[119.86 → 121.52] Did you see the Preamp update?
[121.92 → 122.76] Wow, Alex.
[123.02 → 124.94] I was wondering if you caught this.
[124.94 → 126.90] I was going to ask you if you saw the new Preamp.
[127.00 → 131.48] Yeah, it's its a big update for iOS and Android.
[132.02 → 135.10] And I think at least the iOS one will be really soon.
[135.16 → 138.36] But the death is a desktop version of Preamp now as well, which I didn't even know.
[139.02 → 144.70] And they've added one feature that I've wanted since the very first time I tried Preamp.
[144.90 → 146.10] And it's the shuffle button.
[146.52 → 148.30] So happy to have a shuffle button now.
[148.90 → 150.28] I don't know what to say to that.
[150.92 → 154.50] And I know you're going to be elated to see that they've also added Siri support.
[154.50 → 159.22] So now you can play music on Preamp through Siri, which I'm sure you're going to use all the time.
[160.04 → 165.48] And as you know, as being a heavy iOS user, I'm not I'm still on Android.
[165.62 → 173.26] I tried to switch to iOS in January, but was wearing a lot of face masks in the hospital and face ID and all that.
[173.26 → 175.00] I ended up going back to Android.
[175.20 → 179.46] So I was delighted to see that they've now added Siri support.
[179.90 → 180.28] That's true.
[180.44 → 180.96] That's true.
[181.06 → 182.14] And it works.
[182.28 → 183.16] You know, it's very simple.
[183.66 → 185.38] It's its nothing really to write home about.
[185.46 → 187.56] That's probably stuff that should have had a long time ago.
[187.56 → 197.26] And I think in general, Preamp is probably one of my favourite Plex adjacent ecosystem applications.
[197.26 → 200.82] We get people that write into the show, and they'll say, why do you guys use Plex?
[200.90 → 201.62] There's Jellyfin.
[201.76 → 202.58] There are other alternatives.
[202.58 → 218.08] There's just this ecosystem around Plex now between the friends that I can share with, like Alex, for library sharing options, but also these apps around Plex that break off like the music experience into this individual app that's dedicated to just music.
[218.08 → 219.34] It's its just wonderful.
[219.34 → 222.62] And it's nice to see it get updated to version 3.4.5.
[222.62 → 227.64] It really makes the music experience in Plex quite pleasurable, to be honest with you.
[227.64 → 235.66] And the design language they've used for the application brings it up to the same sort of polish as something like Spotify or something like that.
[236.08 → 239.70] It is just a 100% native looking music app.
[239.80 → 241.24] And I think it's freaking great.
[241.70 → 243.34] There are some things that aren't so freaking great, though.
[243.88 → 244.98] Good and bad, I suppose.
[245.16 → 251.46] Plex revealed that it recently completed a growth equity round of 50 million dollars from an existing investor.
[251.76 → 252.74] Oh, yeah.
[252.74 → 252.88] Yeah.
[253.18 → 258.76] And the company intends to invest its money in a mission to become a one-stop shop for movies and TV.
[258.94 → 261.74] And it aims to do this by addressing one of the most fuss.
[262.18 → 268.70] And it aims to do this by addressing one of the most frustrating aspects today in the legal streaming market, they say.
[268.82 → 271.04] And that is fragmentation.
[271.54 → 273.06] You know, all the different streaming services.
[273.06 → 279.28] They want to bring it all into Plex, including your pirated content or whatever else you might have on there.
[279.28 → 284.98] Like for me, we use Plex for just home videos that we record that we don't want to put up like on YouTube or something.
[285.42 → 287.88] And they want to bring it all into one UI.
[288.32 → 294.18] And you can search all of it from the stuff in your own library to the stuff that's on Hulu to Netflix and Amazon Prime.
[294.92 → 304.18] And Plex says they're going to work with these companies to get API access and integrate it all in there and try to make an experience where you go to one app, and you get all the streaming services.
[304.80 → 307.32] I mean, I understand why they're doing this.
[307.32 → 314.12] Because the revenue streams of a few Plex Pass subscribers surely can't self-sustain the company.
[314.84 → 322.78] I mean, myself, as an example, I paid $75 for a lifetime Plex Pass half a decade ago, more than probably.
[323.48 → 325.28] And they haven't seen a penny from me since.
[325.42 → 335.50] And so, you know, I can understand how, you know, Hulu and Disney and Prime and Netflix are juicy targets for them to try and integrate into one place.
[335.50 → 344.34] But if I was Netflix or Prime or Disney, I'm not sure if I would want people going outside my walled garden.
[344.34 → 352.30] Because the whole reason that these companies have dedicated gardens, walled gardens for their content is so that they can do analytics on it.
[352.30 → 357.38] And they can track you through, you know, minute by minute, second by second of what you're watching.
[357.38 → 364.06] I mean, the Grand Tour is a great example of this, you know, old Top Gear turned into the Grand Tour, Jeremy Clarkson and all that.
[364.38 → 366.94] One of my favourite TV shows of all time.
[366.94 → 378.22] And a couple of years ago, Amazon decided to kill the studio part of the Grand Tour, which was my favourite part, in favour of just doing these epic specials.
[378.28 → 384.24] And now we only get two or three episodes, well, less, a couple of episodes a year of the Grand Tour.
[384.24 → 392.40] And they're these grand expeditions where they go to Madagascar, and they put tank tracks on a Ford Fiesta and stupid stuff like that.
[392.90 → 398.90] Whereas what I watched the Grand Tour for was the cocking about between three old men sorts of taking the mickey out of each other.
[399.20 → 407.42] But the reason they did that, Amazon, was because their analytics showed that most people didn't watch the studio segments.
[407.42 → 411.68] You know, I can understand why they would make that change.
[411.80 → 420.62] But if you're Amazon, and you're giving away API access to Plex, presumably you would bake in some of those analytics through the Plex client.
[420.98 → 430.20] But one of the benefits of having people in your app is that they're not going to exit that app to go to Netflix to go and watch a specific show over there.
[430.26 → 432.94] They're just going to carry on browsing in the portal they're already in.
[432.94 → 445.78] And if Plex presents all of these different things in one place, the value props to subscribe to these different services becomes just too generic at this point.
[445.84 → 447.52] And I just don't see it working, do you?
[448.06 → 449.32] I have to say I completely agree, Alex.
[449.40 → 452.68] And it goes just beyond like analytics and whatnot.
[452.80 → 454.16] But there's also a technical angle.
[454.24 → 458.10] Perhaps they want to tweak how the playback engine works with their particular type of CDN.
[458.10 → 463.46] Or maybe they want to feature content for some special show they've just released or some big movie.
[463.54 → 470.38] Like I just read this morning that Paramount Plus is planning to do a movie a month on their Paramount Plus streaming service.
[471.02 → 480.04] And I got to imagine that every time one of those movie drops, they're going to do some sort of big presentation in a carousel that lets everybody know our new content is here.
[480.10 → 483.22] And I just can't imagine Plex accommodating all of those whims.
[483.22 → 488.28] All of these companies just got to become their own cable network essentially with their streaming service.
[488.72 → 493.28] And we've just gone through the last 10 years of them figuring out how to actually stream video.
[493.42 → 495.34] And they're just starting to get good at it now.
[496.04 → 497.66] You know, Netflix had to set the example.
[498.52 → 501.06] And so I just don't really see this taking up.
[502.14 → 507.58] Maybe if Plex was willing to do something where they got access to the search API.
[507.58 → 512.90] And then if you selected a video, say it was the Grand Tour, it would then just launch the Amazon app.
[513.00 → 513.96] But how valuable is that?
[514.02 → 516.84] And how do you even do that, say, like in a web version or something?
[517.22 → 521.08] My Google Assistant does that already with voice search on the NVIDIA Shield.
[521.76 → 523.76] It'll search through all the apps for me.
[524.12 → 524.24] Right.
[524.36 → 525.96] And ROK's trying to do the same thing.
[526.02 → 528.28] And Apple wants to offer the same thing with the Siri remote.
[528.54 → 528.90] Absolutely.
[529.36 → 529.58] Yeah.
[530.02 → 532.64] And $15 million isn't enough to do this.
[532.64 → 535.34] So they raised $50 million from an existing investor.
[536.06 → 541.88] And as part of that, it includes $15 million in new capital for Plex, which they're going to invest in this mission.
[542.50 → 543.88] That's nowhere near enough, is it?
[544.14 → 545.06] I can't imagine.
[545.32 → 550.16] Unless they see a way of monetizing this, maybe through affiliate links or something like that with the streaming providers.
[550.40 → 550.72] Maybe.
[551.10 → 551.32] Yeah.
[551.54 → 554.70] But you know, Alex, that doesn't even touch on what I don't like about this.
[554.70 → 557.36] And that is this whole single pane of glass.
[557.50 → 559.28] They actually use that term, experience.
[559.28 → 563.32] It's I use Plex intentionally for a curated experience.
[563.80 → 566.44] I don't want to see everything because it's a family cert.
[566.52 → 567.68] It's something that we use for our family.
[567.78 → 574.68] That's why I take the time to put things on there individually, myself as the dad or when, you know, the mom requests something.
[574.86 → 579.44] I have a UI where they can go in, and they can request things.
[579.44 → 583.12] But it is intentionally separated from everything else.
[583.26 → 584.66] And there is an app on the screen.
[584.84 → 585.38] They launch it.
[585.44 → 586.00] They go in there.
[586.06 → 587.16] I know everything's safe.
[587.16 → 589.84] I have parent stuff separated out from kids stuff.
[590.06 → 592.64] And I have really no interest in mixing it all.
[592.72 → 594.94] I can't tell for sure at this stage.
[595.04 → 600.44] But reading between the lines, it does look like they're going to give you the option to not mix everything together.
[600.44 → 602.16] But it will be mixed by default.
[602.48 → 604.00] I mean, I guess time will tell on this one.
[604.38 → 607.96] I kind of hope we're proved right because I really agree with you.
[608.02 → 610.04] I don't want to see this stuff.
[610.12 → 613.52] The reason I have Plex is that I want to control what I see.
[613.70 → 615.38] So, yeah, I'm with you on that one.
[615.38 → 620.06] Yeah, it gets my head spinning immediately on, well, what would I go to?
[620.70 → 622.04] What would I transition to?
[622.30 → 625.06] Because I've got a lot of time invested in my Plex library.
[625.40 → 632.76] And so on of the things I've already done on our Apple TV is I've switched to using – I've talked about it before on the show.
[632.86 → 634.48] I've switched to using Infuse.
[634.56 → 635.82] And I'm going to put a link to it again.
[635.94 → 636.78] It's a paid app.
[637.22 → 638.78] It's like Cody for Apple TV.
[639.16 → 641.00] And I don't use that lightly.
[641.00 → 642.42] I have a lot of respect for Cody.
[642.50 → 644.12] But this is like Cody for Apple TV.
[644.34 → 651.60] It can bring together multiple servers over network connections, Google Drive, Dropbox.
[651.80 → 653.80] And it supports Plex.
[654.20 → 658.04] It will do your watch status and everything that you would need to track in Plex.
[658.68 → 660.50] And it's just a fantastic UI.
[660.50 → 664.42] And it has much better AirPlay support.
[664.54 → 675.40] So if you use HomePods with an Apple TV, or you're using some kind of crazy AirPlay setup, Infuse does it perfectly where the actual Plex client on Apple TV and iOS is not actually great at that stuff.
[675.48 → 676.60] It sometimes has issues.
[676.98 → 683.84] And so when I see this news about one meta search engine for all streaming, I think, yeah, that's all good, guys.
[683.88 → 686.94] But you're not even enticing me to use your own app these days.
[687.08 → 688.48] Like there are other things to focus on.
[688.48 → 693.24] And I have a lot of respect for the Plex folks, but it is just what it is now is I'm using Infuse.
[693.52 → 696.56] And you can get it at firecore.com slash Infuse.
[696.76 → 701.36] And they've just recently released a Mac desktop version, too, which is kind of a neat idea, I suppose.
[701.82 → 706.22] I know lots of the audience are frantically screaming at their podcast devices.
[706.34 → 707.24] What about Jellyfin?
[707.40 → 708.12] What about MB?
[708.60 → 709.40] Well, maybe one day.
[709.48 → 712.42] Maybe you and I eventually will become Jellyfin guys in the future.
[712.48 → 712.92] It could happen.
[713.54 → 716.26] I do experiment it from time to time.
[716.32 → 718.04] Have you ever kicked the tires with Jellyfin?
[718.04 → 718.68] I have.
[718.98 → 720.02] And I went back to Plex.
[720.98 → 721.50] Okay.
[721.66 → 721.98] Sorry.
[722.80 → 725.36] I mean, it's pretty good for what it is.
[725.90 → 727.72] It's just Plex has a head start.
[728.10 → 736.80] And the fit and finish of the UI and the experience I have there is much better on Plex than Jellyfin.
[737.28 → 738.56] What would it take for you to switch?
[738.56 → 745.80] I think when it's suitable for my family members, you know, that they have a lot of time invested in learning.
[746.28 → 748.56] Plex has various UI changes over the years.
[748.94 → 751.84] And they kind of figured out how it works now for the most part.
[751.84 → 756.82] Once Jellyfin's at that kind of level of polish, it's just not yet, though.
[756.82 → 760.24] Linode.com slash SSH.
[760.34 → 763.20] Linde is the largest independent cloud computing provider.
[763.34 → 769.12] And when you go to Linode.com slash SSH, you'll get $100 in 60-day credit towards a new account.
[769.32 → 770.92] And you can go there to support the show, too.
[771.46 → 773.18] We were just talking about media servers.
[773.18 → 778.46] Well, Linde has a one-click application deployment for Plex if you want to get a Plex server up in the cloud,
[778.56 → 781.60] which is a great way to share with friends and family at superfast streaming speeds.
[782.00 → 784.92] Of course, you could just build your own stack and deploy Jellyfin or anything you'd like.
[785.02 → 789.24] And no matter what skill level you're at or what technology stack you're familiar with using,
[789.72 → 791.50] Linde will help you get it going online.
[791.62 → 793.64] They have a really easy-to-use dashboard.
[794.08 → 798.02] And if you have any trouble getting things going or run into any kind of problem,
[798.02 → 803.46] Linde has amazing, fantastic, great, outrageously good customer support.
[803.68 → 805.66] By phone or ticket, they're going to help you get it solved.
[805.72 → 810.42] If you've got one rig, or you're like me, and you're crossing, like, the 15-rig mark or something,
[810.50 → 812.98] I mean, it's getting crazy because we use Linde for everything.
[813.08 → 815.16] And it's not just, like, haphazardly.
[815.84 → 817.48] We think about every machine we deploy.
[817.68 → 821.42] And we decide, okay, is this going to be the machine that is just a dedicated box?
[821.42 → 824.46] Maybe it only runs one application, or it runs just a couple of things.
[824.92 → 827.08] Or is this going to be something like an application server?
[827.08 → 829.72] We have a couple of these, too, where these are more powerful Li nodes.
[830.08 → 833.10] And we run multiple containers on them, running multiple applications,
[833.40 → 839.84] from mail to encoding services to matrix to, well, really, you run the gamut.
[839.86 → 842.58] Anything we're just talking about on the show, we pretty much host it on Linde.
[843.12 → 844.32] People ask me, why, Chris?
[844.34 → 845.62] Because there are a lot of places to host.
[845.76 → 849.94] Well, the reason for that really comes down to a few core things that I think are pretty important.
[850.42 → 852.50] Number one, it is a perfect product.
[852.62 → 853.56] It's very fast.
[853.64 → 855.10] They have 11 data centres worldwide.
[855.10 → 859.74] The interconnects between the data centres, I think, beat what everybody else has, hands down.
[860.08 → 861.36] Linde is their own ISP.
[861.48 → 866.02] So they just have a networking opportunity that people that haven't been around as long don't have.
[866.64 → 871.84] Additionally, their dedicated CPU rigs, they're just faster than other people's dedicated CPU rigs.
[871.96 → 872.70] I like that.
[873.14 → 876.72] Then you factor in that they're really just good Linux-loving folks.
[876.80 → 878.38] They have been since 2003.
[878.38 → 882.16] And that factors into some of the decisions on how they've built the product.
[882.52 → 884.48] And those things appeal to me.
[884.74 → 886.40] They make it easy for me to use.
[886.44 → 888.00] And I feel like it's very simple.
[888.10 → 890.82] But when I need power in that dashboard, it's there.
[890.98 → 894.16] And then there are services like their S3-compatible object storage.
[894.16 → 900.72] Now, this is great because I can use S3 object storage for backup, for configs that I want to store off-site.
[900.80 → 904.56] Or we use it as the back-end storage mechanism for our next cloud instance.
[904.64 → 908.10] So we're not having to sit there and fiddle with different disk sizes like amateurs.
[908.38 → 910.62] We just throw it on the S3 storage.
[910.62 → 915.06] But Linde's so fast that it really is very performant.
[915.20 → 916.70] And it's a great way to build a static website.
[917.14 → 918.82] There's so much you can do there.
[918.90 → 929.10] If you just need something simple like a portfolio website, or if you want to run the back-end infrastructure for your team collaboration or for your e-commerce website, Linde's going to be able to do it all.
[929.18 → 931.34] So go to linode.com slash SSH.
[931.34 → 934.22] Get that $100 60-day credit on your new account.
[934.58 → 936.54] And then just see what it can do.
[937.24 → 938.46] See what we've been talking about.
[938.68 → 940.10] And see why we use it for everything.
[940.62 → 942.46] Linode.com slash SSH.
[943.98 → 947.12] Now what do you do for home assistant wall panels?
[947.20 → 950.78] I recall you bought a Fire tablet a while ago, right?
[951.12 → 952.26] I have a couple of them now, yep.
[952.42 → 957.90] I have a 10-inch one and a 7-inch one that I have mounted in the Lady Joop's RV.
[958.32 → 959.20] How are they working out for you?
[959.22 → 959.60] Do you like them?
[959.60 → 960.60] Pretty good.
[960.80 → 961.74] Pretty good.
[961.98 → 963.72] Not very good performance.
[964.04 → 969.88] And also one of them, even though I bought the no-ads model, has ads on the lock screen.
[970.10 → 971.52] And I find that frustrating.
[972.08 → 973.86] So the performance is not fantastic.
[974.02 → 981.76] But just sitting there with a web page up, and after I install an app, after I sideload an app like an animal to keep the screen on, they get the job done.
[981.76 → 982.18] All right.
[982.18 → 983.38] Well, I've got a solution for you.
[983.38 → 993.10] My wife has, or had, it's mine now, a Fire 7-inch HD tablet from 2015.
[993.10 → 998.08] We paid £35 for this tablet six years ago.
[999.02 → 1001.40] You know, the battery is crap.
[1001.74 → 1003.62] I mean, the battery was crap when it was new.
[1003.94 → 1004.88] The screen is bad.
[1005.00 → 1006.64] It was bad back then.
[1006.72 → 1008.02] So it's terrible now.
[1008.56 → 1010.02] It's just not a great device.
[1010.36 → 1011.00] Let's be honest.
[1011.06 → 1013.60] But it was £35 six years ago.
[1013.60 → 1020.52] And I thought to myself, wouldn't it be cool if I had a wall-mounted tablet dashboard?
[1020.88 → 1021.34] Good for you.
[1021.60 → 1027.70] In my workshop, I've been doing some automation around the woodworking blast gates that I have.
[1027.74 → 1030.40] We'll talk about that more in an upcoming episode.
[1031.18 → 1037.14] And then basically, I just wanted a touchscreen panel that I could just jab my fat fingers on and just open a certain blast gate.
[1037.14 → 1042.08] I didn't want to spend any money because it's already, woodworking's already expensive enough.
[1042.28 → 1045.72] Did you think about going with a voice tube out there before this, or do you already have one?
[1045.96 → 1047.50] Well, I have a voice tube out there.
[1047.78 → 1048.98] It's the lady cylinder.
[1049.68 → 1055.64] And I, I don't know, I've kind of really gone off shouting orders across the room at these things.
[1056.66 → 1063.26] I, in the rental house last, or before we bought this one, everything was on the Google voice system.
[1063.26 → 1068.86] But I didn't set any of that up once we moved, and I haven't since, and I, I just don't miss it.
[1069.24 → 1074.66] I mixed on it myself because there's sometimes you have to restate yourself, and you always feel like a fool when it, when it gets it wrong.
[1074.88 → 1079.40] There's always that thing where you're making eye contact with the cylinder, waiting for it to light up.
[1079.44 → 1080.06] And I'm like, oh.
[1080.52 → 1080.66] Yeah.
[1080.68 → 1086.14] And then in my situation, you add every time we're off grid, of course, the voice transcription doesn't work.
[1086.22 → 1088.94] So that's really where I was like, okay, we got to have tablets.
[1089.14 → 1092.60] And also it's nice to glance at it and just see what's on and what's off.
[1092.60 → 1094.52] So how did you go about accomplishing this?
[1094.82 → 1099.08] Well, I put Lineage OS, which is an open source version of Android.
[1099.40 → 1104.08] I think it's what came out of the Cyanogen mod project a few years ago.
[1104.36 → 1104.54] Yeah.
[1104.66 → 1107.54] I put Lineage OS 12 on this tablet.
[1108.06 → 1116.70] And performance is better than the Amazon OS that was on there before, but it's still a six-year-old device.
[1116.84 → 1117.46] You know what I mean?
[1118.20 → 1120.22] Well, any performance improvement would be good.
[1120.26 → 1121.74] This has crossed my mind before.
[1121.94 → 1123.06] I have thought about doing this.
[1123.10 → 1125.26] I just wasn't sure if it was really worth the bother.
[1125.66 → 1127.52] It was a bit of a pain, right?
[1127.52 → 1141.52] I had to unlock the bootloader, which involved, I had to take the back off the tablet, bridge a couple of pins on the motherboard to ground the bootloader out so that it would boot into the bootloader mode for Android.
[1141.62 → 1145.52] I don't know if you've ever done anything with ADB and fast boot.
[1145.86 → 1146.66] A while ago, but yeah.
[1146.66 → 1152.06] I had to use those tools to put a custom recovery partition on there.
[1152.08 → 1161.36] So I used Team Win Recovery Project, TWRP, and sideloaded on there a bunch of different APKs and the Lineage OS ROM.
[1162.02 → 1168.42] This process probably took me an evening of mostly fuzzing about and getting into that bootloader mode was the hardest part.
[1168.66 → 1170.78] Are you using Windows to do any of this?
[1170.78 → 1175.62] I mean, I have all three in this room, so I, you know, between the different devices.
[1175.96 → 1177.48] Does it require Windows is what I'm asking?
[1177.64 → 1178.84] Do you need Windows?
[1178.98 → 1179.44] Because I'm out.
[1180.02 → 1182.08] That's a disqualified for me right there.
[1182.22 → 1184.80] I think this one works best under Linux.
[1184.94 → 1187.60] I actually just used a Raspberry Pi in the end.
[1187.70 → 1188.16] Oh, okay.
[1188.52 → 1189.32] I have those.
[1189.60 → 1190.34] I know you do.
[1191.28 → 1194.88] I ended up just using a Raspberry Pi with Ubuntu on.
[1195.44 → 1196.00] All right.
[1196.02 → 1197.10] Now you're talking about language.
[1197.42 → 1198.98] So it took you a little bit of an evening,
[1198.98 → 1203.30] but it sounds like if I followed some tips from you, maybe it wouldn't take me that long.
[1204.02 → 1208.22] Well, this is for the specific revision of the 2015 7-inch Fire tablet.
[1208.54 → 1211.48] So I don't know if the newer ones have a more locked down bootloader.
[1211.70 → 1215.10] That's the key is once you can get a custom recovery software on there,
[1215.60 → 1217.56] you can install whatever image you like.
[1217.56 → 1224.32] My first question, once you get the OS on there, is do you do Gaps and do you need Gaps for this tablet?
[1224.62 → 1227.22] No, you definitely don't anymore because of Droid.
[1227.22 → 1232.60] So my use case was to use this thing exclusively for Home Assistant.
[1232.96 → 1233.06] Right.
[1233.24 → 1238.44] And so Lineages, out of the box, ships with no Google software whatsoever,
[1238.80 → 1241.60] which is awesome on such an underpowered device.
[1242.30 → 1243.86] And then so I just loaded Droid.
[1243.96 → 1249.80] I went to the Droid website, enabled unsigned or unknown sources for APK installation,
[1250.50 → 1254.68] installed the Droid APK, and now I have a Google-less app store.
[1254.68 → 1257.16] And Home Assistant is available in that app store.
[1257.32 → 1258.84] So happy days.
[1259.22 → 1260.26] And how are you doing the screen?
[1260.38 → 1261.24] Are you letting it sleep?
[1261.32 → 1262.52] Are you leaving it on all the time?
[1262.78 → 1268.62] Because it's going to be used very infrequently, I have just used the standard lock and unlock.
[1268.92 → 1271.28] And it's going to take me a couple of taps to unlock the screen,
[1271.40 → 1274.80] but I use it a couple of times a day, if that.
[1275.30 → 1276.58] Yeah, that makes sense.
[1277.04 → 1280.74] Now, the other question I have is, are you using the web dashboard,
[1280.74 → 1284.44] or did you load the Home Assistant app and interface with it that way?
[1284.74 → 1288.00] Yeah, I loaded the app through Droid and the performance.
[1288.32 → 1292.02] So I have a lot of experience with how long it takes to load that app on my phone.
[1292.26 → 1294.76] And it can take a beat sometimes.
[1294.90 → 1302.80] Performance of Lovelace and the interface of Home Assistant could be better, shall we say,
[1302.90 → 1303.94] even on modern hardware.
[1303.94 → 1308.94] So you can imagine on this six-year-old device, it takes a good 10 seconds to load.
[1309.22 → 1310.48] Once it's loaded, it's fine.
[1310.54 → 1311.92] And it works just fine.
[1311.96 → 1314.72] But it's that initial load that can take a while.
[1315.14 → 1317.58] If you have a guide or anything like that, is there something we could share in the show notes?
[1317.86 → 1318.84] Yep, it's already in there.
[1319.04 → 1319.36] Aha!
[1320.08 → 1322.12] That'll be at self-hosted. Show slash 44.
[1322.62 → 1325.10] We talked about HealthChecks.io last episode.
[1325.22 → 1329.02] And in there, I asked you about monitoring if APIs or services are up.
[1329.04 → 1330.16] And you mentioned Prometheus.
[1330.16 → 1336.04] Prometheus, well, I want you to tell me more about it because we got a few people that bit via email.
[1336.52 → 1337.20] Yeah, we did, actually.
[1337.48 → 1342.58] And I was quite surprised to see just how many people either already used Prometheus
[1342.58 → 1347.62] and wanted to tell me all about how awesome it was or didn't use it and wanted to know more.
[1347.70 → 1348.76] So here's a little primer.
[1349.46 → 1355.30] Essentially, Prometheus scrapes data on remote servers, gathers it into one place.
[1355.30 → 1364.74] You write queries to query that data and present it in a dashboard or forward on certain things to something called Alert Manager,
[1365.02 → 1366.86] which can then alert you.
[1367.00 → 1371.76] So if your disk percentage, for example, on a remote system goes above 80% used,
[1372.26 → 1374.62] you could have it notify you of that and say,
[1374.98 → 1378.64] hey, you should probably go and delete some stuff before this server fills up.
[1378.64 → 1383.98] Now, what I ended up using it for is my VMware box downstairs.
[1385.14 → 1386.50] It's now just my Home Lab.
[1386.60 → 1387.80] It's not actually my main server.
[1387.92 → 1391.28] It's just performing OpenShift Home Lab duties for me.
[1391.86 → 1396.12] And I put it into a case where fan control was a bit of an issue.
[1396.42 → 1400.84] And so I mentioned in the previous episode about a fan controller,
[1400.84 → 1406.56] the Corsair Commander Pro that is usable on Linux now.
[1406.80 → 1415.06] But one of the things I wanted to do was actually get a feel for how the CPU temperatures were in that system over time,
[1415.06 → 1416.80] because I've got a couple of hard drives in there.
[1417.44 → 1421.16] And, you know, if things are getting toasty, hard drives tend to die pretty quickly.
[1421.40 → 1429.50] So what I wanted to do was monitor that VMware venter instance with Prometheus and have it alert me if there was a problem.
[1429.84 → 1430.06] Nice.
[1430.06 → 1433.10] I ended up using this thing called VMware Exporter.
[1434.16 → 1437.46] And there's a link to the Docker Compose snippet in the show notes.
[1438.38 → 1447.00] And this thing, basically what it does is it logs into sphere's API every pre-prescribed interval.
[1447.12 → 1449.26] I think I've got it set to like 15 seconds or something.
[1450.04 → 1453.94] Scrapes a bunch of data available through the venter API,
[1454.46 → 1457.44] which includes stuff at the host level like CPU temperature,
[1457.44 → 1462.58] but also includes the PMI data like the voltages and all that kind of stuff.
[1462.64 → 1466.08] So it's pretty granular and pretty detailed if you want to know that stuff.
[1466.08 → 1469.70] And then it imports it into the Prometheus real-time database.
[1469.70 → 1475.64] And from there, once it's in Prometheus, I can query it using Grafana or whatever else I want to.
[1476.34 → 1481.90] And I use a container called Prior der, I think is how you say it.
[1482.02 → 1483.52] Prior der VMware Exporter.
[1484.22 → 1486.76] Super simple little Python app and just does the job.
[1486.76 → 1489.74] What kind of hardware utilization, I guess, is what I'm asking.
[1489.94 → 1493.28] So if I have a system, I have an existing Leon box here at the studio.
[1493.90 → 1497.40] It's probably about 30% utilized CPU-wise and memory-wise.
[1497.92 → 1499.36] Do I need something more powerful?
[1499.48 → 1501.62] Do I have enough headroom for running these kinds of services?
[1502.04 → 1504.16] Prometheus itself is pretty lightweight.
[1504.90 → 1508.94] You know, with any real-time metrics gathering system like this,
[1509.02 → 1512.34] we'll probably want to put it on some kind of flash-based storage media.
[1512.34 → 1517.56] So, you know, you'll need a few gigabytes scratch disk for that to use.
[1517.80 → 1521.76] But then once you've done that, you need to create what are called scrape jobs,
[1522.02 → 1525.14] which is how you tell Prometheus what to look for
[1525.14 → 1528.56] and what to kind of gather in terms of metrics on remote systems.
[1529.08 → 1533.70] You configure that in my favourite language of them all in a YAML file.
[1534.46 → 1538.42] And once you've done that with Prior der, you kind of set it, forget it,
[1538.46 → 1540.36] and never worry about it ever again.
[1540.36 → 1542.46] And then how long does it collect for? Forever?
[1543.30 → 1544.44] How long do you do it for?
[1545.02 → 1546.28] I haven't really worried about it.
[1546.38 → 1546.98] I just sort of...
[1546.98 → 1547.32] Forever!
[1547.80 → 1549.16] Keep them forever, yeah.
[1549.24 → 1551.88] I mean, I guess if you're in an enterprise situation
[1551.88 → 1556.14] where you're scraping 10,000 servers, that might be an issue, but I'm not, so...
[1556.14 → 1558.28] Yeah, so maybe not a big deal.
[1558.40 → 1560.06] You could be. That'd be kind of fun, wouldn't it?
[1560.10 → 1561.68] Go back 10 years and look at stuff.
[1562.42 → 1562.78] Oh!
[1563.38 → 1565.72] Well, I mean, look, this is how these big guys do it.
[1565.72 → 1570.38] I mean, Kubernetes clusters the world over are monitored by Prometheus.
[1570.94 → 1574.38] OpenShift actually ships a bunch of stuff with Prometheus built in.
[1574.56 → 1578.28] So this is one of those technologies that if you're thinking about getting into DevOps
[1578.28 → 1582.08] and that kind of space of, you know, site reliability engineering,
[1582.80 → 1586.48] these are the sorts of tools that you should be mucking about within your home lab
[1586.48 → 1588.94] and trying to figure out how they work and understand them
[1588.94 → 1592.02] because you'll be able to take that knowledge and use it to get a better job.
[1592.02 → 1593.36] Yep, great skill to have.
[1593.90 → 1594.98] I just like the idea.
[1595.04 → 1597.32] I just like the idea of picturing you like 10 years from now,
[1597.40 → 1603.72] looking back at some graph analogs and just kind of getting nostalgic from graphs and logs.
[1604.16 → 1607.98] Yeah, my CPU is 33 degrees on May the 5th, 2021.
[1608.34 → 1609.06] Hey, great.
[1609.22 → 1610.80] Ah, I remember that, yeah.
[1611.16 → 1612.26] Those were the days.
[1615.22 → 1616.30] Cloudfree.shop.
[1616.30 → 1618.88] Head over there and buy from a community member
[1618.88 → 1624.58] who has built a business out of creating devices that are ready to go without any cloud restriction.
[1625.04 → 1626.92] And they posted an update in February.
[1627.80 → 1629.90] And you got a mention in here.
[1630.06 → 1630.72] He says...
[1630.72 → 1631.08] Did we?
[1631.38 → 1632.24] How cool is that?
[1632.46 → 1632.92] He says,
[1633.00 → 1635.68] I need to also thank Alex and the self-hosted podcast.
[1635.92 → 1638.58] I've listened to Jupyter Broadcasting podcast for over seven years.
[1638.92 → 1642.82] And without our partnership, Cloud free would not have grown nearly as fast as it did.
[1643.12 → 1646.12] And I got to say, it hit me in the feels because the picture they have in that
[1646.12 → 1649.68] looks a lot like what we're doing for the Jupyter Garage shipping right now.
[1650.20 → 1654.84] And I just totally realized, like, I'm learning a lot of the same stuff that they had to learn
[1654.84 → 1656.68] to do Cloud free right now.
[1657.14 → 1660.38] And so I felt very like I had a kinship all of a sudden.
[1660.54 → 1662.86] And I thought that was really great that they had a really...
[1662.86 → 1663.58] This is a perfect...
[1663.58 → 1664.68] This is a really positive update.
[1664.76 → 1667.16] It looks like things are going really well for Cloud free.
[1667.28 → 1668.68] And that's why we like to mention them.
[1668.78 → 1670.96] It was an idea that I think needed to happen.
[1670.96 → 1676.12] And it's a great way to go get devices at a very reasonable price, like outdoor and indoor
[1676.12 → 1683.88] smart plugs, Zigbee dongles, temperature sensors, motion sensors, Z-Wave buttons, door sensors,
[1684.00 → 1687.06] all that kind of stuff that you might want to hook up to Home Assistant.
[1687.30 → 1691.02] But, you know, you don't want to have to bother with the ref lashing yourself or worrying about
[1691.02 → 1694.08] the required cloud connectivity that they ship with by default.
[1694.68 → 1695.96] Cloud free just takes care of all that.
[1696.10 → 1698.90] That's why we like to give them a mention at cloudfree.shop.
[1698.90 → 1702.48] And when you're over there, don't forget to use the coupon code self-hosted so that
[1702.48 → 1703.28] they know we sent you.
[1704.62 → 1706.18] All right, feedback time, I think.
[1706.40 → 1707.28] Daniel writes in,
[1707.36 → 1712.90] I'm currently using a Synology 216J with an EXT 4-volume mirrored on two drives.
[1713.20 → 1718.22] I'm curious about how I might go about upgrading here and prioritize backup ergonomics.
[1718.64 → 1723.84] Right now, I don't have snapshots, and I'm considering switching to ZFS or Butters.
[1724.34 → 1724.76] Brackets.
[1724.98 → 1725.80] Please don't fight.
[1725.80 → 1731.74] How can I do this without purchasing a huge external hard drive to move everything over
[1731.74 → 1733.02] whilst I build a new volume?
[1733.72 → 1739.10] Also, NFS seems kind of antiquated, and I'm wondering if this is the fastest way to mount
[1739.10 → 1740.28] things over the network.
[1740.56 → 1741.40] Is there a better option?
[1741.94 → 1742.14] Hmm.
[1742.44 → 1743.76] A little NFS hate there, huh?
[1744.08 → 1745.28] No, I used to think that too.
[1745.74 → 1748.68] You know, actually, that's sort of the beauty of NFS is that it's so simple.
[1748.82 → 1750.14] It is extremely efficient.
[1750.14 → 1753.14] But there are lots of ways to transfer files over the network.
[1753.62 → 1754.10] It is old.
[1754.28 → 1759.24] But, you know, one way you could look at old is tested, you know, reliable.
[1759.74 → 1759.88] Right.
[1760.14 → 1760.50] Boring.
[1761.06 → 1762.40] And it's still in production.
[1762.72 → 1764.28] So this is an interesting question.
[1764.38 → 1768.24] It's like, I want to do something that's kind of risky, like switch to ZFS or Butters,
[1768.24 → 1773.54] but I don't want to have to purchase an external hard drive to back everything up to.
[1773.94 → 1777.08] And there's definitely part of me that's like, that's just not how it works.
[1777.24 → 1781.06] I just want to say, you know, when you're messing with important data, you do kind of
[1781.06 → 1787.48] want to externalize it because you can convert an extended four partition in place to Butters.
[1787.80 → 1789.22] I've done it a couple of times, actually.
[1789.48 → 1793.52] I was just having a conversation with somebody earlier this morning about just that thing.
[1793.52 → 1794.98] And it'll work.
[1795.80 → 1798.48] But I can't tell you it's risk-free.
[1798.76 → 1799.72] It is absolutely not.
[1800.60 → 1802.26] And so I don't know how you get around that.
[1802.32 → 1806.54] Do you have any ideas on maybe like pulling other disks on your LAN or I mean, something
[1806.54 → 1807.24] out of the box?
[1807.88 → 1808.28] Not really.
[1808.64 → 1813.30] I mean, it's it goes back to that whole raid is not a backup type thing.
[1813.44 → 1819.12] So even if you have a volume mirrored on two drives, unless that data exists somewhere
[1819.12 → 1823.50] else as well, I would pretty much say that data doesn't actually exist at all.
[1823.72 → 1827.10] Because if that mirror was to go pop, that data is gone.
[1827.30 → 1830.18] So this is probably not what you want to hear.
[1830.66 → 1835.58] But I would buy that external hard drive, mirror everything onto that external hard drive,
[1835.84 → 1841.78] free up the two drives that you want to put ZFS or Butters onto, and then you should be
[1841.78 → 1842.24] good to go.
[1842.76 → 1844.28] That I completely agree with.
[1844.50 → 1849.72] And now, as an aside, I want to just acknowledge that I do feel like we go about our daily lives
[1849.72 → 1854.48] totally underutilizing lots of free space on the systems on our LAN.
[1854.64 → 1858.10] And I know there are a couple of projects out there to crack this nut.
[1858.16 → 1863.02] But if anybody listening is using something and has been using it for a little bit to take
[1863.02 → 1867.54] advantage of maybe, you know, a machine over here that's connected via Ethernet that has
[1867.54 → 1868.76] 120 gigs free.
[1868.76 → 1871.08] And this machine over here that has a terabyte free.
[1871.18 → 1874.20] And I have a machine over here that has 500 gigs and a machine over here that has four
[1874.20 → 1874.98] terabytes free.
[1875.42 → 1881.40] And I just need temporarily, I just need somewhere to store an extra seven terabytes a day.
[1881.44 → 1887.30] It's like, could I pool everything somehow together and then somehow trust that this network
[1887.30 → 1889.34] file system would work?
[1889.34 → 1893.10] And you could, there are ways you could hack it together, especially with, you know, on
[1893.10 → 1894.58] Linux with different mount points and all of that.
[1894.64 → 1897.04] But I just don't, I just don't know of a solid one.
[1897.16 → 1899.08] So self-hosted. Show slash contact.
[1899.40 → 1903.98] If anyone out there has something just out of curiosity, just be a fun thought experiment
[1903.98 → 1905.82] to pool the storage on my network.
[1906.02 → 1909.28] I don't think I'd use it for anything in production or for backup though.
[1909.64 → 1910.70] I just don't think I would.
[1911.30 → 1916.94] The next one comes from Mike, and he's responding to a question I proposed last week about using
[1916.94 → 1921.74] home assistant automations to cycle the charging of batteries on and off.
[1921.80 → 1927.06] So that way devices don't sit at a hundred percent charged for days, or they don't stay
[1927.06 → 1928.20] at zero percent charge.
[1928.28 → 1931.24] You may be something in the 40 to 60 percent range.
[1931.50 → 1935.48] It'd be lovely to have an option to say today, I want everything charged to a hundred percent
[1935.48 → 1938.50] because we're going on a road trip today, and we need everything charged up.
[1938.70 → 1942.90] And we got a couple ideas suggested, and I liked Mike's and I wanted to give it a read
[1942.90 → 1943.08] here.
[1943.12 → 1946.92] He says, since there's really no out of the box solution right now, I'm going to
[1946.92 → 1951.78] I'm creating a script that scrapes my laptop's battery info, and then we'll publish it to
[1951.78 → 1956.88] my home assistant's MQTT broker and then home assistant will act on that data to power
[1956.88 → 1958.84] cycle my laptop's power supply.
[1959.26 → 1960.10] Keep up the show.
[1960.22 → 1960.48] Thanks.
[1960.62 → 1962.48] And Mike, good idea.
[1962.56 → 1963.66] That's great for the laptops.
[1963.98 → 1970.28] The impossible nut that I'm trying to crack is like iOS devices, maybe even drone batteries,
[1970.62 → 1975.40] things that don't even have an OS to scrape from, but you'd almost need like a time-based
[1975.40 → 1975.86] system.
[1975.86 → 1978.34] I suppose I'm still chewing on it right now.
[1978.46 → 1984.86] I just kind of do it manually, and it's not bad, but an example of a system that I probably
[1984.86 → 1990.68] don't unplug and cycle the battery as frequently as I should are those fire tablets that are
[1990.68 → 1991.84] plugged in and mounted on the wall.
[1992.02 → 1995.68] I do power cycle them on occasion, but not regularly.
[1995.68 → 2000.50] And with the home assistant app on Android, like there is something I could do there, but
[2000.50 → 2002.46] I'm not looking for onesie those solutions.
[2002.58 → 2004.86] I'm kind of looking for something that would work for everything.
[2005.20 → 2010.62] I'm going to plug something that our community started about six months ago called Halcyon,
[2010.72 → 2012.86] home assistant Linux companion app.
[2013.24 → 2016.42] And there's a link in the show notes, halcyon.CASA.
[2016.42 → 2023.86] It's a Rust based application designed to run on Linux systems to present those metrics
[2023.86 → 2024.56] to home assistant.
[2025.26 → 2028.14] It's early days, and it needs some love and some works still.
[2028.30 → 2032.70] But if you're interested in that, check out, there's a dedicated channel in the discord
[2032.70 → 2033.68] for Halcyon as well.
[2034.00 → 2035.04] And it's written in Rust.
[2035.14 → 2035.94] So what more could you want?
[2036.10 → 2036.78] I love that.
[2037.24 → 2041.78] Now, Brad writes in, I'm looking into moving off Google photos like everybody else.
[2041.78 → 2045.22] It seems I've landed on Plex photos as my solution.
[2045.62 → 2051.66] I have some friends that are also self-hosted, and I've given them WireGuard access and they
[2051.66 → 2056.94] said I can have a few hundred gigs of storage on their networks for my photos and vice versa.
[2057.54 → 2061.54] What I'm stuck on though is an encrypted backup method for backups.
[2061.76 → 2062.96] I've tried Duplicate.
[2063.24 → 2066.26] I've tried some other backup solutions.
[2066.54 → 2071.06] I don't really care about how it backs up file changes as the library is growing.
[2071.06 → 2072.54] I'm not editing the photos.
[2072.68 → 2074.30] So only incremental is needed.
[2074.66 → 2078.50] They do need to be encrypted though, because they're going to be on a remote LAN.
[2079.14 → 2082.52] Now, I haven't done a lot of research on this yet, but do you know of any software that
[2082.52 → 2088.30] doesn't automate one way backup phone to server, for example, to get the photos off
[2088.30 → 2092.46] my phone and onto the server where I can delete them off my phone, and they will stay on the
[2092.46 → 2092.72] server.
[2093.14 → 2094.48] Looking forward to future episodes.
[2094.80 → 2095.82] Thanks, Brad.
[2096.18 → 2097.24] This is a good question.
[2097.38 → 2099.10] Duplicate is not quite cutting it.
[2099.10 → 2101.64] And so what do you step up to essentially?
[2101.88 → 2104.34] And you don't want something probably that's a lot to manage either.
[2104.66 → 2108.36] Oh, Duplicate has just wound me up over the years.
[2108.50 → 2113.36] You know, it just silently fails and stuff just breaks and there's no way to monitor it.
[2113.42 → 2115.36] And you can only configure it through the GUI.
[2115.72 → 2116.84] It's a great app.
[2116.94 → 2121.76] It just isn't very reliable, which is not really suitable for a backup system.
[2122.14 → 2122.30] Yeah.
[2122.30 → 2127.90] I don't know where the failure process, when my backups failed, when my Google Drive payment
[2127.90 → 2129.74] expired or switched.
[2129.98 → 2131.94] I don't know where the failure was exactly.
[2132.12 → 2134.14] I don't know if there wasn't a notification, but I don't know what.
[2134.66 → 2135.96] It was ultimately it was my fault.
[2136.40 → 2141.30] I thought about recommending Borg, which is a really solid backup open source solution.
[2141.74 → 2143.28] It's pretty space efficient.
[2143.28 → 2145.94] It gives you good encrypted backups.
[2146.06 → 2149.62] It supports compression, and it'll use Fuse, too.
[2149.66 → 2153.70] So you can do kind of creative ways to mount file systems, which could be kind of nice.
[2154.24 → 2155.58] And it has a pretty large community.
[2155.74 → 2157.70] You can find it at borgbackup.org.
[2157.80 → 2159.16] That might be worth looking into.
[2159.72 → 2160.46] Borg is an alternative.
[2161.40 → 2162.40] Rustic is another one.
[2162.46 → 2165.00] We mentioned autocratic and Rustic last episode.
[2165.32 → 2166.18] That's another one.
[2166.18 → 2172.44] But for getting the things off your phone, I've just been really happy with the Nextcloud app.
[2172.70 → 2177.46] It backs up everything off my phone in full quality to my Nextcloud instance.
[2177.92 → 2180.30] And then from there, I can do with them whatever I want to.
[2180.76 → 2184.60] That's the one we hear the most often from the audience, too, is the Nextcloud solution.
[2184.96 → 2189.48] We have gotten a recommendation a couple of times into the show about Photosync as well,
[2189.54 → 2190.70] which is in the Android Play Store.
[2190.82 → 2191.72] Photosync, one word.
[2191.72 → 2198.08] And the nice thing about Photosync is it supports various different kinds of network backup options,
[2198.18 → 2200.34] even Samba, if you want to go that route.
[2200.78 → 2203.12] You could just back up your photos over Samba from Android.
[2203.44 → 2205.22] So I'll put a link to that in the show notes as well.
[2205.68 → 2208.08] Now, you mentioned in your question about Plex Photos,
[2208.20 → 2213.84] and this is a terrible time to be adopting Plex Photos as a solution, unfortunately.
[2214.74 → 2218.60] Plex document on their support pages that as of June 2021,
[2219.52 → 2221.38] camera upload is going to be discontinued.
[2221.38 → 2223.00] Womb, womb.
[2223.08 → 2223.56] Yeah, boy.
[2223.78 → 2228.22] And I think a lot of us are just getting, we're just getting a little Plex skeptical.
[2228.96 → 2231.80] We're still Plex hopeful, but we're getting Plex skeptical.
[2232.20 → 2237.94] And I do have to admit personally that Plex skepticism I'm feeling right now would probably,
[2238.94 → 2242.08] I'd hesitate from using Plex Photos myself for a back,
[2242.12 → 2243.86] and I'm not using it because of that reason.
[2243.86 → 2247.10] Dare I say, Plex are becoming the Google of the self-hosted world,
[2247.20 → 2253.08] just killing stuff randomly and not focusing on the core products like they should be?
[2253.20 → 2253.64] I don't know.
[2253.72 → 2255.06] I guess I feel it's kind of mean.
[2255.32 → 2262.16] They are such a smaller team that they do have to be a little more conservative about where they spend their time and money,
[2262.24 → 2268.24] where Google's like this, you know, this just financial monster powerhouse supplied by an endless amount of ad money.
[2268.24 → 2271.38] So it's like, come on, you know, maybe you could keep this going.
[2271.74 → 2273.36] Maybe you could invest a little more in Stadia.
[2273.50 → 2274.84] You know, like right now they're killing Stadia.
[2275.26 → 2275.98] Drives me crazy.
[2276.26 → 2278.48] I know it's not a self-hosted thing, but dang it.
[2278.72 → 2281.74] Well, everybody knew that was going to happen even before it launched.
[2282.08 → 2282.34] I know.
[2282.42 → 2284.12] Like, did you see like some big exec just left?
[2284.18 → 2287.32] Like the top Stadia exec just left Google or something?
[2287.74 → 2288.12] Oh, really?
[2288.34 → 2290.20] Yeah, not good, not good.
[2290.42 → 2294.16] I was a big fan of it, even though I often have no internet when I'm out travelling.
[2294.34 → 2298.88] I just love the idea of being able to play Stadia on any machine I want, Alex.
[2299.08 → 2301.82] You know, games on a machine with just a really crappy video card.
[2301.90 → 2302.42] I don't care.
[2303.30 → 2304.02] Here are some neat ideas.
[2304.50 → 2309.06] Well, I'm actually thinking about building my own self-hosted gaming setup here in the studio just using Steam, though.
[2309.06 → 2312.12] You know, just have it on the LAN and just stream it to the boxes that way.
[2312.58 → 2316.48] Use Steam, use Parsec, Moonlight, all these different streaming protocols.
[2316.88 → 2318.08] Lots of different ways to skin that.
[2318.12 → 2318.40] Turkey.
[2318.70 → 2322.00] I want to say thanks to our members at self-hosted. Show slash SRE.
[2322.14 → 2323.58] Become a site reliability expert.
[2323.74 → 2324.78] Keep the show on the air.
[2324.88 → 2331.84] And as a thank you, as a special thank you, as a golden thank you, a limited ad feed, just nice, tight production.
[2332.34 → 2333.66] It's a nice, tight, quicker show.
[2334.14 → 2334.72] Isn't that great?
[2334.98 → 2337.46] All the Drew loving, just fewer ads.
[2337.64 → 2340.10] And you also get extra content.
[2340.44 → 2341.30] A post show.
[2341.52 → 2345.66] You get a post show where I'm going to try to propose, Alex, try something new for the summer.
[2345.88 → 2346.80] We'll see how that goes.
[2346.80 → 2347.74] Oh, no.
[2347.82 → 2349.00] How much is this going to cost me?
[2349.24 → 2350.58] Oh, yes, it will cost you.
[2351.48 → 2352.90] Also, thank you to a Cloud Guru.
[2352.98 → 2354.24] You can find them on social media.
[2354.36 → 2356.40] They're just slashed a Cloud Guru everywhere.
[2356.86 → 2357.70] Pretty easy to find them.
[2357.70 → 2361.48] Self-hosted. Show slash contact is the place to go to get in touch with us.
[2361.60 → 2364.42] And you can find me on Discord at Alex.
[2364.78 → 2365.56] I'm over there, too.
[2365.62 → 2369.28] You can find me at Chris Lass on the Discord or on the Twitter.
[2369.50 → 2372.32] And the show is on the Twitter, too, at Self Hosted Show.
[2372.56 → 2373.52] Thanks for listening, everybody.
[2373.52 → 2376.12] That was self-hosted. Show slash 44.